Sony’s still testing out dynamic pricing
A few months ago, we reported on some strange, inconsistent pricing spotted on the PS Store, and it seems this hasn’t gone away — and may have become even more widespread.
Over on good old Reddit, someone shared their experience while looking at Assassin’s Creed Unity, which recently received an update enabling 60 frames-per-second performance when played on PS5.
When not signed in, the game showed a discounted price of £3.74, but when they logged into their account, the price was suddenly £9.99:
We’ve been able to replicate this on the browser-based PS Store; when logged in, we see the higher price, and it swaps to the lower one when we’re not, just as shown above.
Another one: when logged out, The Last of Us: Part II Remastered shows as £44.99. After logging in, the price changes to £42.49. Not a massive difference, but it’s still a clear change.
Obviously these are just a couple of examples, but they’re indicative of a larger scale experiment with dynamic pricing.
Price-tracking website PSPrices has been keeping tabs on this for a while, and recently reported on their findings. Here’s how they describe what’s going on:
“Some PlayStation Store users see experimental prices that are significantly lower than the standard retail price. This is a controlled A/B test by Sony to study the price elasticity of demand. Users are randomly placed in control or test groups — and see different prices for the same games.”
So, this isn’t something that’s affecting everyone, but it’s possible you’ve been seeing higher or lower PS Store prices than other PS5 users, and may not even know.
Have you had any issues with something like this? Tell us in the comments section below.
Stephen has been part of the Push Square team for over six years, bringing boundless enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of video games to his role as Assistant Editor. Having grown up playing every PlayStation console to date, he’s developed an eclectic taste, with particular passion for indie games, arcade racers, and puzzlers. He’s also our go-to guy for Sonic-related matters, much to his delight/chagrin.
